Google has announced the addition of widget-style web apps to the Google homepage.

The personalized homepage was created to bring together the stuff that interests you from across the web. From an engineering perspective, this became an opportunity to create a framework for all types of content and information. Supporting RSS and Atom feeds was one step in that direction, and today we're excited to start supporting richer web apps as well. With the Google Homepage API, developers can now create modules for the personalized homepage. It's designed to be flexible and easy to use, and you don't need to download anything to create a module.

Google's directory of widgets is still small (only five widgets available), but the Google Homepage API should mean developers will be plugging in their own widgets very soon.